SILJE NES - Ames Room

Born amid the cold Norwegian fjords, Silje Nes follows the typical artistic path of a debutant. Raised in an unwelcoming country, among remote places, with nothing else to do but try to paint dreams and hopes with whatever imagination had to offer. Between philosophy studies and various stints in local indie-pop bands, the young woman came to approach composition in a very casual, instinctive way. A songwriting project that began in 2001, with little money in her pocket and a flood of ideas in her head. Armed with a four-track, a microphone and a laptop, she began her journey. Frail instrumental structures were then fleshed out with the use of a guitar (played for the first time) and a piano (already studied beforehand).

Her highly varied style lets her range across very different melodic networks, caught between an electro-impressionist, vaguely improvised sketch and a deeply inspired folk-pop cocoon. The use of a multifaceted instrumental palette and the compact length of the fourteen tracks allow "Ames Room" to enchant with great grace.

The gentle blend of electronic scores and light acoustic touches ("Over All") recalls the soft-rock of Justine Electra, while the small folkloric fragments of domestic cabaret project recent memories toward the sophisticated, intimate theatricality of Eglantine Gouzy.

The heterogeneity of the sounds Nes creates gently disorients the listener, revealing a will to advance subtle avant-garde constructions, in homespun field recording form ("Magnetic Moments Of Spinning Objects"), close both to the Nordic mewing of Hans Appelqvist and to the restless whispers of an imaginative Lisa Germano, wholly absorbed in the electric assembly of laptop trinkets and morning birdsong ("Shapes, Electric", "Ames Room").

At times a mature, composed singer-songwriter approach also emerges, one bent on underlining the multiform worth of a young woman who, more than most, pays attention to every single detail, and above all is determined not to leave out stylistic variation of any kind ("Melt"). Emotional disorientation is always just around the corner.

Such a "premise" instantly demands that this little Norwegian composer be entered into our notebook, ever more full of fine future expectations and crossed fingers.

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31/01/2008